Susan O’Neill and Mick Flannery will perform at GIAF on 3 September.

Other Voices Comes to Galway International Arts Festival

Live-stream will feature Mick Flannery, Susan O’Neill and NewDad; plus ConTempo celebrate 25 years; E-motions features work by Irish composers.

Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) has today announced the programme for this year’s event, taking place from 28 August to 18 September. The festival, which usually takes place in July, has been moved to later in the summer due to the pandemic.

The first music events of GIAF will be a series of concerts by the ConTempo Quartet, marking 25 years since the group formed. On 28 and 29 August and 16 September, ConTempo will perform at St Nicholas’ Church with pianist Finghin Collins, including works by John Field and Shostakovich’s only work for piano and string quartet.

Other Voices will present a live-streamed concert at GIAF on 3 September, featuring Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill (who will release their first album together on 9 September), Galway-based dream pop band NewDad, pop singer Tolü Makay and Galway composer and producer Anna Mullarkey.

On 2 September at Galway Cathedral, e-Motions, a multi-media show, will feature the Luminosa String Orchestra, Resurgam, accordionist Dermot Dunne, cellist Adrian Mantu and more. e-Motions will present an evening of music, dance and visual art, including works by Raymond Deane, Joan Trimble, Jane O’Leary and Ina Boyle and O’Carolan.

Vinyl Hours is a GIAF talk series where Tiernan Henry speaks with a line-up of guests about their most treasured songs and records. This year, the series takes place at NUI Galway’s O’Donoghue Theatre on 4, 11 and 18 September and features founder of Other Voices Philip King; diversity advocate Sinéad Burke; former Republic of Ireland football manager Brian Kerr, and Galway singer-songwriter Niamh Regan. Tickets are €5.

Commenting on the programme, GIAF Chief Executive John Crumlish said:

Despite the many challenges of the last year for everyone, I feel that we at Galway International Arts Festival are very lucky in that we will get to present a festival that we are very excited about. It’s indoors and outdoors, its city and county, it’s Béarla agus Gaeilge and it’s in person and online. We are really looking forward to it and we very much hope that audiences will enjoy it.

Tickets go on sale on 16 July. Visit: www.giaf.ie.